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birthright citizenship

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    7/2/2023

    Why We are Still Debating Birthright Citizenship

    by Martha S. Jones

    Opposition to birthright citizenship has, historically and today, reflected opposition to the idea of equal membership in the political community of the nation and has been inextricable from the idea that white Americans should be privileged citizens, argues the leading historian of the subject. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post

    Why Everyone Born in the US is a Citizen, and Why it Matters

    by Amanda Frost

    In upholding birthright citizenship in the case of US v. Wong Kim Ark, the court invoked English common law, rather than claims to citizenship rights and freedom by escaped slaves, as the foundation of the 14th Amendment's definition of citizenship. This makes the principle vulnerable when it should be unassailable. 

  • SOURCE: Jacobin
    12-4-18

    First as Farce, Then as Tragedy

    by Manisha Sinha

    Donald Trump wants to destroy the 14th Amendment's guarantee of birthright citizenship. But before he sought to eliminate it outright, his elite predecessors mangled, misread, and misused the amendment in the service of capital.

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    10-30-18

    The Citizenship Clause Means What It Says

    by Garrett Epps

    The authors of the Fourteenth Amendment were clear that the United States is one nation, with one class of citizens, and that citizenship extends to everyone born here.